NEO-DARWINISM AND SIMON BUREAUCRATIC ANTIHERO

Decision making, as a form of Darwinism, has reduced our sense of what it means to be a human being to the practical art of adaptation to a hostile environment. In reality, however, the practicality of decision making to the survival of the species or the American culture is marg inal. For Herbert Simon to be able to prescribe administrative behavio r, which is essentially problem solving, he must also reduce the heroi c nature of human beings to the dreary and uninspiring task of satisfi cing. Satisficing does not draw on the human capacity for proactive ch oice and purposeful change. Simon bases his theories on an incomplete view of evolution-especially human evolution. Simon's neo-Darwinism is illustrated and then compared with emerging views on the nature of ev olution, the brain, and the human enterprise. The conclusion drawn her e is that whether or not we have bounded rationality is really a matte r of the choice we make about human purpose.